My pet peeve: "revealing" speakers


The one word that bugs me the most in all of the audiophile world is "revealing." 

It's plenty descriptive but it's also biased.  What I mean is that speakers that are revealing are also usually quite colored. They don't unveil a recording, they focus your attention by suppressing some tones and enhancing others. The reviewer who suddenly discovers hearing things he has never heard before and now goes through his entire library has fallen for this trap hook line and sinker.

This is not always true, as some speakers are revealing by ignoring the room.  They can remain tonally neutral but give you a headphone like experience.  I'm not talking about them.  I'm talking about the others.  I  wish we had a better word for it.

Mind you, I believe you should buy speakers based on your personal preferences.  Revealing, warm, neutral, whatever.  I'm just saying this word is deceptive, as if there were no down side when there is. 

Best,

Erik
erik_squires
is it the speakers that are revealing or the recording or the upstream components?
Review speak:

Revealing = you will need ear plugs
Ruthlessly revealing = you will need ear plugs and Advil
Needs careful system matching = you will need ear plugs, Advil, a tube amp, and a glass of Scotch
LOL, truer audio words were never spoken ;-)
The dac/amplifier/ speakers resolve,
but the speakers/room reveal.

The resolving and the revealing are 2 properties of speakers that must be distinguished....

The resolving potential is in relation to "generic" pre-designed components in the speakers,
the revealing potential is in relation to " specific" working of the mechanical structure of the speakers, not only the electronical or electrical one, in the room....

The resolving is defined in relation to the source, the revealing is defined in relation with the room’s embeddings....

Engineering science like medecine is an art, the art of the trade-off....  

:)
Sounds like you have a semantics problem specifically associated with speakers YOU don't like.  What is YOUR suggestion for the correct wording to use in order to describe undefined speakers you probably won't like?